


Pen Pals

by DWEmma



Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 15:18:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8896453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DWEmma/pseuds/DWEmma
Summary: Michael and Petra have a history that neither one has admitted to, and they avoid discussing it after a mommy and me class with Matteo, Anna, and Elsa.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Saathi1013](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saathi1013/gifts).



Narrator: When Petra Solano, AKA Natalia [last name redacted], was a child in Prague, she hated school. She hated that the teacher was always telling her what to do, she hated that the other children were always so much stupider than she, and she hated, well, you know Petra, she hated so many things. One day, they were assigned to have penpals from the United States. Specifically from Miami! I KNOW! Now, American penpals sounded like a lot of work to most of the students in her class. But to Natalia, it sounded like a road to American blue jeans and hopefully cash money. 

The downside was that her teacher was planning on reading and correcting their English on every single letter! Natalia wasn’t going to be able to work her magic if the teacher saw what she was going to write. So every month, Natalia had to write a fake letter. “How are you? Do you like the power pop music of Lucie or the funky rap production of J.A.R.? Do you own a puppy dog or a hoola hoop?” But then after the teacher had looked over the letters, she had to break into the classroom (don’t ask me how, I promised not to tell!) and switch it out for the real letter. “Dear American Friend,” it would say. “I am very poor. Czechoslovaka is such a poor country. All I want is for my twin sister to have American Blue Jeans in American size 2 to give for our birthday. My sister, you see, cannot walk and I want her legs to be happy about something.” “Dear American Friend, my sister need an operation for her legs. It will cost only 200 American Dollars, but we are so poor so my sister she may die and also never walk again. If you could please send money order, my sister could be alive still.”

And I am not sure if I am happy or sad to tell you that this worked! Petra’s pen pal, he gave her the money! She did send him a nice thank you note, though. It read, “Dear Michael Codervo, thank you for the money. My sister, she can walk again. And she looks very good in American blue jeans as well. You are a hero. You will grow up to do big heroic things one day, I know it to be true. Love Natalia [last name redacted]” 

Chapter One: 

Petra and the nannies were taking Anna and Elsa to a baby group. Usually Petra just let her nannies do their thing, but yesterday Jane had started singing some stupid baby song about popcorn in front of the girls, and they had laughed with this annoying insider thing, like Petra wasn’t good enough to know their little popcorn song, so Petra was now determined to go to the class once, learn the stupid songs, and show Jane that she was just as good a mother as she was to her stupid child. 

As she impatiently waited for the nannies to unload the stroller from the car, she happened to see Michael with Matteo, going into class. Petra wasn’t sure if she was happy that it wasn’t Jane taking Matteo to class because it proved that she wasn’t a perfect mother and she wouldn’t have to look at her smug face, or if she was irrirated she wasn’t there to see what a great mom Petra was. 

“Nannies, what’s the hold up?” she yelled back the 20 feet to the car at the women putting her twins into the stroller. 

Michael turned around and saw Petra, and shook his head for some reason. 

“What?” she said to him. “What are you shaking your head at?” 

“I just didn’t realize the class was called Mommy and Nanny and Me.” 

“Well, there’s two of them,” Petra said. “I’d like to see you handle two of them.” 

He shrugged in a really annoying way. 

“What’s that shrug supposed to mean?” 

“Well, it’s not like you’re handing even one of them,” he said, lifting Matteo under his arm like a sack of batata. 

“I can handle them fine!” She stomped her high heals over to the babies, who were just now in the stroller, and grabs away the handles from one of the nannies. “You are dismissed for the next hour. I will be taking Anna and Elsa to Mother and Me class.”

“I’ll see you in there,” said Michael. 

“You will do that!” said Petra, as she struggled to figure out how to disengage the stroller lock, as the nannies tried not to laugh as they walked away. 

* * * * *

“Matteo’s got a dog on his head. Matteo’s got a dog on his head. Matteo’s got a dog on his head and he keeps it there all day.” 

Matteo laughed as the whole room sung his name and a stuffed dog kept falling off his head. Every time it did, Michael put it back on. 

The next few children had, in sequence, a frog on her head, a pig on his head, and an alligator on his head. Next came Elsa. Petra was amazed that everyone in the room could tell which twin was which, considering that she sometimes struggled telling the difference, but the song paused right after “Elsa has a...” as the group waited for Elsa to have some sort of stuffed toy on her head. 

Petra stared at the group. “Oh,” she said. But as she reached to pick up one of the stuffed animals, she noticed little Trevor sucking on his alligator, and her interested in touching any of the animals went to zero. 

“They’re dirty,” Petra explained. “I’m not putting it on Elsa’s head. Or touching it, frankly. You should really consider the spread of germs from baby to baby.” 

And Petra saw Michael sigh. “I have an idea!” she said, reaching down into her purse. She pulled out a tube of lipstick, and placed it on Elsa’s head. Everyone continued to look at her in shock. So she started the song. “Elsa has lipstick on her head, Elsa has...” and everyone awkwardly joined in. 

After that verse was over, she reached into her purse again, and put some gum on Anna’s head. “Anna has some gum on her head. Anna has...” 

Petra gave Michael a self satisfied grin after this success. She’s really good at this mother thing. 

* * * * *

After the never ending class was over, and she had learned the popcorn song (90% of it was the word pop, so she wasn’t sure if an hour has necessary to learn a song that simple, she picked up Anna and Elsa, and struggled with putting each back into the stroller without putting the other one down. 

Michael went up to her. “Can I help?” 

“No, I told you, you wouldn’t know what to do with them!” she yelled, as both girls started to cry. “My nannies will be back any moment.” 

“Actually the class was only 20 minutes, and you told them to take an hour.” 

“That was only 20 minutes?” It felt so much longer.” 

“Here let me,” and Michael took Anna out of her hands, and Anna instantly stopped crying. 

“You’re good at that,” Petra muttered, and put the still crying Elsa back in the carriage. “ztišit se!” 

“You know,” Michael said, as he put Anna into her part of the carriage and touched Elsa’s face, instantly getting her to stop crying, “I speak a little Czech. You said something like “be quiet,” didn’t you?” 

“Something like that,” Petra said. 

“Yeah, I had a penpal when I was a kid.” 

“Did you? I had no idea,” said Petra. 

“Yeah her name was Natalia. She was a twin, just like you. Her sister almost died when we were pen pals. Something about her not being able to walk and needing surgery to save her life. I was actually the one to send her the money, and her sister lived. We lost touch after that.” 

“Did you? That was so nice of you, I’m sure,” Petra was avoiding eye contact, since she wasn’t sure if this was some sort of cop trick or if Michael really was this much of an idiot. 

“I mean, now that I’ve been a cop, I’m 99% sure she was scamming me. What surgery costs $200? But still, it made me feel good about myself at the time. She told me that I should be a hero one day. It’s probably the main reason I decided to become a cop. So I sort of owe my life to her,” he said. “Well, I guess I owe the times I’ve almost died to her as well, but I really like being a cop, so I’m still grateful.” 

“You should tell her that. You should try to find her and tell her that.”

“I should really do that,” Michael said, and after a long pause. “Well, have a great day, Petra,” he said, as he picked up Matteo under his arm again, and walked off. Instantly the two girls started to cry, and Petra looked at her watch. It was 35 minutes before the nannies would come back.


End file.
